However, the Dayton coach isn’t connected strongly with North Carolina State (Thamel writes of “an expected lack of interest” from not only Miller but also Xavier coach Chris Mack), but he brings up a far more intriguing possibility: What if one of them could be lured to Indiana?

There’s an industry-wide expectation this job will open this this year. Will Indiana fire Crean? Or will he find a safe landing elsewhere? That’s the drama. (It costs him nothing to leave, contractually.) But the bottom line is it would be an upset if there’s not a new coach on the sideline in Bloomington next year.

Thamel calls Mack and Miller “the most logical fits” but also floats the possibility UCLA and Indiana legend Steve Alford could amicably split ways to find a better fit for each.

The story also touches on Thad Matta and Ohio State, though Thamel pegs the chance that job opens (“Likely with Matta in some sort of role in the athletic department,” if so) at just 10 percent.

Also mentioned in the SI piece: Brad Brownell and Anthony Grant.

Thamel rates the chances Clemson fires Brownell, the former Wright State coach, at 35 percent, and he mentioned Grant, a former Dayton player, as a possible candidate at South Florida…

Alabama coach Anthony Grant shouts at his team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Dayton on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011, in Dayton, Ohio. Dayton defeated Alabama 74-62. Grant played for Dayton in the 1980s. (AP Photo/Skip Peterson)

Wayne defensive end Alex Reigelsperger announced he will take his talents to Lexington to be a Kentucky Wildcat in 2018.

He is the second major prospect in the area to commit so far this year, joining Dunbar receiver Joseph Scates (Michigan State)…

Yesterday Dayton held a media availability to preview the big Senior Night matchup with VCU on tap for Wednesday night, and Miller mentioned something that caught my ear.

He called the Atlantic 10 a “throwback conference” since many of the players are around for multiple years and rivalries have a greater chance to develop than in some of the Power 5 leagues, where one-and-dones are more prevalent.

Hype is building for the Rams’ visit, and justifiably so. A win gives the Flyers an outright A-10 championship and the No. 1 seed in the conference tourney…

OSU point guard Kelsey Mitchell was named the conference player of the year for the second time then tried her hardest to convince the Big Ten Network she hasn’t really had a great season.

That’s a tough sell when you’re leading the conference in scoring and on pace to become the all-time leading scorer in the country next year, but having talked to Mitchell many times, that humbleness seems completely genuine.

Should be interesting to see how far she and the Buckeyes can go in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments...

Also something to keep an eye on: If the Buckeyes have a strong showing this weekend in Indianapolis at the Big Ten tournament, they will likely host first- and second-round NCAA games. And if Dayton and/or Wright State (both regular season co-champions of their conferences) win their league tournaments, they could find themselves in Columbus, too…

The Reds lost again yesterday, falling to 0-4 in spring training for the first time since 1995 when they had replacement players pretending to be major leaguer.

Among other things, it offers yet another indication blame for the game-planning and play-calling woes the Buckeyes faced the last two seasons was misplaced on Beck, who I always maintained didn’t have enough influence to ruin the offense even if he wanted to.

The play-calling duties toggled between Beck and Warriner as well as Meyer with no clear delineation of responsibility.

The declining play of the quarterbacks is another matter, but then again some of the struggles of J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones was no doubt a by-product of some of the head-scratching ideas about what the offense should be as a whole...